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Seven of the nation's 10 most expensive housing markets are in California, including the eighth-ranked Sacramento region, according to a recent survey.

The San Francisco-Oakland area has the nation's costliest housing, with the average homeowner spending 70 percent of her income to pay the $3,815 for the mortgage and the property tax. But homeowners in Los Angeles, San Diego, Oxnard-Thousand Oaks and San Jose metro areas are close behind, setting aside at least 60 percent of their income for the mortgage, according to a new Bizjournals study.

And Sacramento eats up about 51 percent of the median-income family's $4,491 monthly paycheck.

"California has a lot of strengths, but even so, we're seeing more of our young people relocate out of state," said Leslie Appleton-Young, the chief economist with the California Association of Realtors.

"And more and more, their decisions are based on housing prices. How can you even imagine a starter condo at $600,000?"

Bizjournals compared housing costs and income levels in the 95 U.S. metros with populations above 500,000.

The study used statistics from the 2005 American Community Survey, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. From the study, Bizjournals identifies the 10 most affordable markets to own a home and the 10 costliest markets to own a home.

For example, the median owner-occupied home in the San Francisco-Oakland area was valued at $655,300 in 2005. A 6 percent mortgage on such a house, with a 10 percent down payment, would run $3,536 per month. Property tax would drive total expenses up to $3,815 -- or more than 70 percent of monthly income.

That's more than two and a half times the national average of 27 percent. Even Bakersfield, the cheapest of the 10 California markets in the study, was 10 points above the U.S. average -- and the 21st least affordable market in the nation.

Cost pressures have forced lenders and purchasers to take unusual steps. Fifty-year mortgages are now available in some California markets. One-fifth of the state's homebuyers last year took out mortgages with no down payment, and two-fifths relied on a second mortgage, according to the California Association of Realtors.

"Everyone talks about housing prices," Appleton-Young said. "People who don't own, they wonder if they should buy now, and whether they can afford it. On the other side of the divide, many homeowners are seeing great gains. They're benefiting from high prices."

Housing prices at these high levels could act as a drag on the state's business climate, said Stephen Levy, director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy.

"So far, we've been able to weather these great disparities, but I think that era is coming to an end," he said. "Our analysis shows that high housing prices are increasingly going to be a competitive disadvantage."

Housing costs in 16 U.S. markets, including nine in California, ran higher than 40 percent of the median household incomes for those areas, according to the study.

Prominent non-California metros in that expensive group were New York City (57.5 percent), Honolulu (50.7 percent), Boston (46.9 percent), Miami (42.8 percent) and Las Vegas (40.8 percent). All but Vegas are located along the Atlantic or Pacific oceans.

The housing picture is much brighter in Augusta, Ga., the most affordable metro area in which to own a home. The typical house in the Augusta market was valued at $103,300. Mortgage and property tax payments for such a home, based on Bizjournals' estimates, would be $613 per month.

Those expenses would consume just 17.4 percent of the monthly income for the area's typical household. No other major market had housing costs below 18 percent of income. Only 12 of the 95 metropolitan areas in the study group did better than 20 percent.

The study found that reasonably priced homes are concentrated in inland regions of the South, Midwest and the industrial Northeast. Joining Augusta in the top five were Wichita, Kan.; Little Rock, Ark.; Baton Rouge, La.; and Birmingham, Ala.

Bizjournals estimated that the nation's average tab for a mortgage and property taxes would run $1,039 per month, or about 27 percent of America's median household income of $3,854 per month.

The best and worst housing markets in the United States

(Ranked by the percentage of a median-income family's pay that goes to monthly mortgage and property tax)

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